


Jealousy Looks Good on You

by thegoodfic



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: (and obviously they hook up), Claire is jealous, F/M, So there’s a lot of teasing, but he kind of loves that she’s jealous, but they’re not dating so technically she shouldn’t be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:22:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoodfic/pseuds/thegoodfic
Summary: Neil calls Audrey into his office for help and if they’re sitting a little too close together, neither of them notice.Claire Browne does though. And she hates how much she hates it.Almost as much as she loves to tease him.
Relationships: Claire Browne & Neil Melendez, Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Comments: 11
Kudos: 68





	Jealousy Looks Good on You

He sat at his desk staring at his screen for what felt like the 11th hour straight, trying to figure out what he was looking at. 

Crouched closely behind him Dr Lim couldn’t see it either, leaning over on his desk and watching the screen with him. 

She cocked her head to the side, trying to get a better angle, inadvertently resting her head on his shoulder as she did so. 

If he’d noticed how close she was, it didn’t bother him - his mind focussed only on the scans in front of him. 

But his concentration broke when the door of his office opened slowly and a stoney-faced Dr Browne stepped inside. 

“Dr Melendez, sorry to intrude,” she said, not doing well to hide the fierceness in her voice. “I just wanted to let you know Ava McKinnon is awake.”

Audrey stood, suddenly realising their position behind his desk might have looked less than professional. 

He’d called her in as a second set of eyes when she walked passed his office 30 minutes earlier. He needed a purely professional second opinion. But Claire didn’t know that.

“Thanks, Dr. Browne. I’ll come down with you,” he nodded. 

Dr Lim told him to forward her the scans and she’d have a look in her own time to see what she could come up with, before passing Claire on her way out of the office. 

He looked up at her from behind his desk, the fire behind her green eyes on full show once they were alone. She gave him a hard look, but said nothing. 

“She’s a colleague, Claire,” he said, trying to hide a smirk. “I needed a second opinion.”

“I didn’t say anything, Dr Melendez,” she said, as she turned her back and headed for the door. 

“You didn’t have to,” he laughed. 

She went to push the door open before stopping and turning around to say something she quickly forgot. 

Because she hadn’t realised how quickly he’d caught up with her. 

He stood just behind her, inches away as she turned to face him. 

She felt his breath on her nose and she hoped he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was beating. 

She was fuming, but knew she didn’t really have a right to be. 

He loved that he could make her jealous. 

He held his breath as she turned away from him, pushing the door and stepping out of his office and down the corridor. 

But he hung back for a second, gathering his thoughts, trying to convince himself to stop thinking about grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back against him. 

She did an awfully good job of staying mad at him for the rest of the day, ignoring his less than subtle stares from across the table as they worked with Shaun on a brain tumour that was proving difficult to access. 

It’d been harder to resist staring at her, touching her and pulling at her clothes since they’d finally given in to months of frustration about four weeks earlier. 

They’d been a little tipsy, at a work event and had dressed for each other. If she’d thought he was hot in those white button ups or a set of scrubs, she had no idea what she was missing when she saw him in a tux. She avoided him most of the night, not knowing if she’d be able to form appropriate words if she was forced to talk to him. But also because she kind of enjoyed catching him staring at her, while he was supposed to be deep in conversation with one of the millionaire donors to the hospital. She’d worn the red sequinned halter dress hoping it would have that precise effect on him. The neckline just low enough to have her walking a fine line between stunning and a little too sexy. He spent much of the night wondering how difficult the ties on her back would be to undo.

She caught his eye at the end of the night as she headed for the door, having introduced herself to enough people and watched three silent auctions be called. She didn’t have work the next morning, but it had been a long week nonetheless. She winked at him as she slipped outside, silently cursing herself for not bringing a shawl, before the champagne she’d been sipping suddenly wrapped her in an alcohol blanket. It didn’t take long before Dr Melendez appeared beside her, thankfully catching onto her silent invitation for him to join her away from the party. 

“You are something else Dr Browne,” he said, voice low and eyes running from her toes to her chest, her red lips and eventually, her eyes. 

She looked up at him from beneath her thick lashes, a smile pulling at her lips. She suddenly noticed how good he smelled and if she hadn’t already decided what she wanted that night, she’d have made up her mind then and there. 

“You’re  definitely  doing okay for yourself tonight too, Dr Melendez,” she said, barely louder than a whisper. 

Her cab pulled up before they could each forego every ounce of self control they had left. Thankfully he seemed to be on the same page as her without even needing to ask. 

He opened her door and watched her slide into the taxi, before whipping his head back towards the building and checking no one else had left behind them. 

He climbed in beside her, confident no one had seen them leaving together.

He could have, and perhaps  should have, simply dropped her at her door and carried on in the cab back to his apartment. But when she ended the trip and paid the driver before he could even float the idea of going home alone, he silenced all the voices in his head that told him following her inside was a bad idea. He gave in to every desperate urge that had taken control of his thoughts, hands and body. She didn’t seem to mind. 

If they’d thought the tension was thick between them before that night, they had no idea how hard it would be to resist each other after. 

After 4 hours of Claire, Shaun and Neil voicing ideas and arguing about opinions, he told his residents to pack up and head home, they’d look at the case again with fresh eyes in the morning. Claire moved slowly, only managing to get as far as putting her tablet away by the time Shaun stood from the desk and bid his colleagues a good night. 

“Jealousy looks good on you, Dr Browne,” Neil smirked as soon as they were alone. 

She snapped up, eyeing him, watching the corners of his mouth curl. 

She wanted to kiss the smug look off his face right there. 

“I’m not jealous, Dr Melendez,” she said rolling her eyes. “Shaun had some great ideas, you were right to tell him he was doing a good job.”

But they both know it wasn’t the conversation with Shaun that he was referring to. 

“There’s nothing going on with her, you know,” he said casually. 

She stopping picking up papers and stared at him, her a fire in her eyes. 

There was something about her being frustrated, or mad, that made him want her even more. 

“It wouldn’t matter if there was,” she said, defiant and turning back to her paper. 

“Why not?”

He was baiting her and they both knew it. 

They’d told themselves the night of the party was a one time thing, just to get whatever had been building up between them out of their systems. 

But it seemed only to add fuel to the fire. 

“You can sleep with whomever you’d like, Dr Melendez.”

“What about you?” he quizzed. 

“I can also sleep with whomever I like.”

But that wasn’t what he was asking and she knew it. 

She was enjoying playing with him, watching his face grow red as he heated up. 

They were sitting on opposite side of the table, tablets and notepads between them. But if anyone had walked into the room in that moment, it would have felt like they’d walked in on them naked on top of the desk, limbs intertwined and lips exploring every inch of each other. 

Neil would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about doing that every time he was alone in a room with her. 

“I meant,” he said slowly, almost whispering. “What if the person I want to sleep with is you?”

She took a sharp breath in. 

She was hoping he’d take the conversation there, but it still took her by surprise.

“That..” she didn’t know what to say. 

“That would… probably be frowned upon,” she said slowly and quietly, avoiding his gaze out of fear of not being able to hold herself back. “But I’d probably be okay with it.”

He dropped his pen and caught hit forehead in his hands. 

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.

Then it was her turn to smirk as she grabbed all of her things, suddenly picking up the pace of her tidying. 

He stood and walked back into his office, pulling his jacket from the back of his chair and picking up his bag in one hand, keys in the other. 

She was only about 5 steps behind him as they walked quickly and silently to the hospital’s exit, praying no one would stop either of them on the way out.

They shared a smile and silent lift of eyebrows as they parted ways at the carpark, Neil following Claire back to her apartment. 

Hers, because it was the closest one to the hospital. 

**Author's Note:**

> Still in my bubble pretending the last episode never happened and living out the fantasies that Claire and Neil deserved in my head :) :) :) :) :) :) :)


End file.
